Magicians game, p.1
Magician's Game, page 1
Magician's Game
Discord & Rhyme
Phaedra Weldon
Caldwell Press
Contents
Copyright
Note To Readers
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINTEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY ONE
TWENTY TWO
TWENTY THREE
Epilogue
GLOSSARY
About the Author
Copyright © 2015 by Phaedra Weldon
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Published by Caldwell Press
Cover Design © 2015 by Lou Harper
Editing by Kirkpatrick Editing Services.
QUALITY CONTROL: If you find typos or formatting problems, please contact ph8dra@comcast.net so they may be corrected.
If you want to be notified when Phaedra's next novel is released and get free stories and occasional other goodies, please sign up for her mailing list by going to: http://tinyurl.com/n4vrpwc
Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Note To Readers
For those who need continuity, this story takes place between Elemental Flame and Elemental Soul in The Eldritch Files, but does not contain Samantha Hawthorne or Crwys Holliard.
ONE
Dharma
This was a stupid idea.
Stupider because I agreed to it.
There I was, sitting in my white Gremlin, across the street from the home office of Blackwood Construction in a $15 a day parking lot, waiting on my boyfriend, Ivan Westerfield, to text me a signal to make a diversion.
How was I supposed to create a diversion in an office building in downtown New Orleans? Blowing it up was beyond my magical pay grade, or capabilities. The only thing I could do was manipulate Water. This isn't like those super hero twins—it's nothing that simple. Far from it.
My magic's tied to what's called a Water Elemental, an Undine. When anyone sees it, they think mermaid! Not that many people see her. Witches, and those gifted with magical sight, can see her. Cowens, non-magical people, never notice she's there. But she's more than just a mermaid or a tool. She's been my constant companion since I hit puberty and flooded the house twice because I didn't understand how magic worked.
It was memories of that flood that gave us the idea for Ivan's diversion. I'd already sent her into the high-rise.
I wished I'd parked in the shade. March in New Orleans is a prelude to the agonizing heat in June, July and the dreaded August. Forget about frying eggs on the dashboard of the car—more like turns them into ash. Sweat ran down the sides of my face, down my chest between my boobs, and down the middle of my back as I waited. All my fears and a butt-load of anxiety rested with Ivan and what he was attempting inside. This wasn't just another big company in the Business District. This company belonged to the strongest Ceremonial Magician in Louisiana. And he had something we wanted back.
Well, my boss ordered me to get it back. It's a file of something he doesn't want made public. And since I'm a Water Witch, and not all that tech savvy, I asked Ivan to help me. Because Ivan's witchy-power is something I've never seen before.
Truth is, no one in the Magical World's seen this kind of magic. The guy can manipulate the Cyber World. No joke. Doesn't need a computer to tap the Internet. He thinks it and he's there. A friend of his calls him Google Boy. He's not that far off. Most people, well everyone else, when they want to know something, they bury their faces in their phones, tablets and computers. Not Ivan. I've watched him pause, his eyes glow green and bam. He's got all the information a search engine can call up.
Ivan's one of a kind.
And those in Blackwood's building were about to get a taste of what a Cyber Witch can do.
I flinched as a transparent chat window appeared to my right. This was Ivan's way of communicating non-verbally. Ghost texting. See what I mean by unique?
Ready?
Answering was the tricky part. I used the phone because I can't ghost text. I typed out Yes and hit send.
Go for it.
I gave my Undine the signal and sat back. My next part of this crazy plan was to drive this getaway car when Ivan stepped out. I wasn't starting the car till I saw Ivan leave the building. The car's got air-conditioning, but we wanted a fast escape, so that little luxury would have to wait until we were free and clear. It's a Gremlin. The car's older than my mom.
Since he gave the signal, I assumed he had the file. He never told me how he planned on getting it out of a high-security building though. And if he gets caught with it—
Alarms rang across the area seconds before the sirens. The lower doors of the glass and steel tower opened as people poured out onto the sidewalks and street. It was really impressive and if I weren't a part of this, I'd be weirded out as a passerby.
Two fire engines pulled up, along with a waterworks vehicle and several black and white cop cars, all emblazoned with the crescent logo for the New Orleans Police Department. I spotted wet people coming out of the building. Many of them pointed up, so I looked through the windshield, craning my neck to get a good view. Water spilled out around the seams of several closed windows, then streamed down the side of the building and splashed onto the concrete below.
Wow…my Undine might have overdone this just a little. I said create a water diversion, not a waterfall. But that's exactly what she'd done as water broke more window seals and pushed glass to the sidewalk below. Crap! I seriously hoped no one got hurt!
I felt my Undine's joy deep in my chest as she did her mojo and I gently reined her in. She reluctantly released her control of the building's water system and returned, floating in the air as a beautiful, twelve-inch high mermaid.
"You had a little too much fun, didn't you?"
She beamed and nodded like a bobblehead.
"You see Ivan?"
She moved her head the opposite way. No. I thanked her and she disappeared as I leaned out the open window to look at the spectacle. The city water people were going to have a hard time explaining this catastrophe. Crowds of spectators and employees stood around as police and city workers alike barked orders to move them back from the building.
But where was Ivan?
I opened the driver's door and half stepped out of the car to scan the crowds. I searched for a tall, lanky, kind of nerdy guy with a really great face. The eyes were my favorite because they had a slightly Asian shape. His eyes used to be brown, but during a seriously 'effed up nightmare into the Faerie Realms a few weeks back, he got a good dose of Dragon blood (not the herb!) and now they looked topaz, with a hint of green.
But it wasn't his physical appearance I concentrated on. It was his subtle vibration. The way he felt to me. It was a combination of his smell, his moods, his overall demeanor. All of it created his uniquely special feel. I could single him out in a crowd, just as I could pinpoint a single raindrop in a puddle of water.
"Hey, cool hair," a guy said as he passed by me to his car. I nodded at him and smiled, but I still scanned the crowd. This guy was wet so I'd bet he was leaving work and calling it a day. "Classic car," he continued before he diverted his attention to the parking lot.
I like to color my hair. This month it's pink and blue.
Suppressing the urge to run into the crowd and call Ivan's name, I sat back down in the driver's seat and white-knuckled the wheel. "Come on…where are you?" Why couldn't I sense him?
A S.W.A.T. van pulled up at that moment and the scene went prime time TV for me. What was going on? At that moment, I was pretty sure Ivan was caught. Why else would they call S.W.A.T. in? They knew he was there. He's hiding in some closet because they detected him on their server. That's it. We're going to jail. Or worse, Ivan is and they don't like cyber thieves these days.
My boss was going to be so pissed off because this meant we would have to deal with the Cowens. He'll probably fire me for bringing in a civilian Witch. Screwed. That's me!
The passenger door opened, and I made a very girly yell as a soaked, very dripping, Ivan Westerfield settled into the passenger seat and closed the door. He smelled like chemicals and detergent. "You're soaking my car!"
Ivan wiped at his face as he blinked a few times at me. "Your Undine turned on the sprinkler system at the same time she turned on all the water valves into the building. Pressure caused the sprinklers to explode." He raked long fingers through his dripping hair. "I was standing underneath one in the server room."
I resisted the urge to hug him because…reasons. Most of those being we needed to get out of there and in a calm, non-guilty way. Since other workers were walking to their cars, drenched in water, I figured we could file out in line with them. But I would not hold my breath until we were past the cops and the S.W.A.T.
I cranked the car and eased into the line as a uniformed cop directed us away from the building.
"Wow…they called S.W.A.T."
&n bsp; "Yeah," I nodded to the nice policeman and turned left with everyone else. "You care to tell me about that?"
The grin he gave me was priceless. It reinforced the reasons I fell in love with him. "Might be because I put in a call to every local government service before the water works started." He shrugged. "The more diversion the better."
Great. He called them. Ivan's lucky his footprint in a system couldn't be traced because no one knew how to trace a biological signature. Those weren't my words. Those were his. Not that I understood him most of the time. "So did you get it?"
"Mhmm… Ouch, these pants are chaffing."
"Where is it?" I knew he knew I meant the file.
"It's safe."
"Ivan," I followed the crowd away from the commotion, but I kept one eye on the wet man in my car. "Where is it?"
"Is this necessary?"
"Is it on a flash drive?"
"Better."
I glared at him when I stopped at a light and turned the water covering his body into ice.
"Dharma!" he shouted as the light turned green. He made a few other noises.
"Where. Is. It?" I melted a little of the ice. A little of it.
The ice on his arms cracked as he tapped the side of his head. "It's right here."
I glanced at him several times before I turned down Canal. Once we were past downtown we'd be closer to his place. Our place. I reined in my anger. Why had he tapped his head? Because Ivan Westerfield had uploaded the file into the one place no one could ever find it.
His mind.
TWO
Camila
"What the hell happened?"
Camila Simon winced at the angry tone in her boss's voice behind her. She stood just outside a local Starbucks, amid the six-man IT team for Blackwood Construction. Men and women in state, county and building uniforms moved around, intent on investigating the sudden flooding. She looked at Dan Fuego, her choice of second. He faced the boss behind her with wide eyes but managed to touch her hand in support.
I'm so getting fired. This thought became the background noise in her head the moment she got word the flooding had been relegated to just the floors of their company. All her hopes of a bright future with a good salary, stock options, good 401K, all of it popped like a bubble in her mind. Dreams of getting her mother out of government housing and into something nice in the Garden District, or at least as nice as the houses there, evaporated before she faced her boss.
Deep breath. Straighten shoulders. Camila turned and faced Edmund Blackwood.
The intense, narrowed look in Blackwood's eyes poked a hole in her confidence. She spotted the rage behind those eyes; rage she'd seen focused on so many people since she worked for the company and trained under Blackwood's more eclectic pursuits. Yeah, I'm getting fired. And I will probably end up a black spot on the highway when an 18-wheeler mysteriously comes over the median and plows into my car. If there was one thing her hoodoo practicing grandmother always said, it was don't make a Ceremonial mad. "Mr. Blackwood, we were evacuated before we could—"
He held up a hand, and she stopped talking. "Camila, step over here with me." Blackwood turned and walked around the building on the street side of Starbucks.
Here it comes. He's going to push me into traffic. No one will see. Just an accident. With a glance at Dan, she saw the fear in his face too. Of all the people working on the team, she and Dan were the only ones connected to Blackwood outside of the company. They knew his moods and his ability to get away with anything better than anyone.
She took another deep breath, straightened her damp suit jacket, and marched around the building to meet with Blackwood—
But he wasn't there. She retraced her steps when the side door of Starbucks opened and Blackwood stepped out. "In here. No need to talk in the heat."
Camila had to agree, and she sighed with a bit of relief. Okay good. So he wasn't going to kill her in traffic. Poison in her tea? She disliked coffee.
Blackwood ordered himself a latte and her a chai, her favorite. Camila looked out front to see her teammates glancing at the corner of the building, but none of them dared to step around to see what kind of dressing down their boss was getting. The windows were tinted and apparently no one thought to look inside.
They took their drinks to a far table to make them even more invisible. Camila's stomach flip-flopped around so much she couldn't drink the tea. Instead, she braced herself for the verbal barrage she knew was coming once she gave him the bad news.
"I'm assuming you've already checked the server?" Blackwood's voice held none of the previous venom in it.
She nodded.
"I'm assuming it's gone. And it's the only thing missing."
"I haven't been able to access the other servers—not until they turn the power back on—but if they stole the file on the secret server then I'm assuming as much."
He sipped his coffee. "No word from the code I asked you to attach to it?"
Camila checked her phone with shaking hands. "None, sir. They have to play the file before the code will violate their system."
"Good. Oh, they'll play it. I'm sure of it. And they'll wonder if they got the only copy."
"Yes, sir. I have the copy on a terabyte drive at home."
"Good, good. That's where they'll never find it."
He said nothing else for a few seconds. Camila glanced at her team huddled outside in the heat.
"They'll remain there until I step back around." He smiled. "But you won't be."
"Sir?" See? Here it is. I'm fired. And I'm so dead. So, so dead.
"I will tell them you've been suspended as punishment. They'll be upset since there's no way to prove you had anything to do with this odd happening. In fact, I know you didn't." His eyes, and his attention, focused on Camila.
The man held a powerful aura about him, something Camila felt the moment she met him on her first interview. He wore it like a suit of armor.
"I'm…I'm suspended?"
"Don't worry, Camila. Water Magic caused those pipes to burst. Not just any Water Magic. Elemental Magic. I know Hawthorne and her Titan boyfriend are not in the city. I can't figure out where they are, but they're not here. I also don't credit them for knowing the file was there."
"I'm not sure how anyone knew it was there, sir." She felt a little better hearing him say he didn't blame her. But…suspended? Another part of her relief was helped along by her boss's hatred of Samantha Hawthorne, a well-known Elemental Witch in the Quarter. Well-known by other Witches. To Magicians like themselves, she was only known as a problem. Mostly Blackwood's problem.
"There is a rumor—something I picked up from my source in the local Eldership—that one of Hawthorne's coven members is a hacker. I overheard Arden Vervain mention this young man's skills to one of the other Parliament members back when those Elders were murdered under very mysterious circumstances." The left side of his mouth pulled up in a half smile. "I have my suspicions, Camila, about this young man."
"You think he took the file?"
"I do. And given what just happened, I also believe he had help from his girlfriend. A Cleric. An Elemental Water Witch."
Camila liked keeping Blackwood's attention off of herself and focused on someone else. Anyone else. "If he's part of Samantha Hawthorne's coven, then what kind of Witch is he? Is he Dianic?"
"That's the assumption Cromwell Dryden has. That's the general feel of him. And perhaps his hacking abilities have nothing to do with magic at all."
"Well of course. Hacking uses a computer. A machine. And magic and machines don't mix. Magic always interrupts the magnetic fields of CPUs." Camila finally tasted her chai. It was good and growing cold.
"Unless his magic has something do with hacking."
"Is that possible?"
"Look at yourself, Camila. You don't just write code, you can overlay it with magic. And you can do this around a computer and not have any ill effect on it." He sipped his coffee again as he leaned back and crossed one leg over the other. "I suspect magic and machine are at a crossroads. If magic is to survive, it must learn to get along with machines. Your magic works with computers. What if this young man's magic also works with computers? What if…" he smiled at her. "What if his magic, his true magic, is hacking?"
